2022 Heerkretz GG

The 2022 Pinot Noir Heerkretz GG is distinctly reductive but also engagingly fresh and aromatic on the nose, with precise notes of cassis, dark berries and volcanic rock. A real Heerkretz, but as a red wine? Twenty years ago, this would have been inconceivable! Concentrated and fleshy yet essentially mineral, with stimulating grip and saltiness on the finish, this is a spectacular red wine not only for the western part of Rheinhessen but for the Rhine as a whole. Also, it's a stylistically a great Pinot! Tasted at the Vorpremiere VDP.Grosses Gewächs in Wiesbaden in August 2024.

Picked between 19 September and 10 October, so over 21 days, and bottled in June of the following year, the 2022 Heerkretz Riesling GG shows a clear, pure and rocky yet intense and substantial bouquet. Though still closed and a bit untamed at this very early stage, the wine should be generously aerated if it is to be served soon. On the palate, the 2022 is a quite rich, lush and intense but also finessed and sustainably mineral-structured Heerkretz that represents the generous sun and heat of the vintage, whereas the crystalline and enormously saline finish adds a coolish, terroir-driven twist that defines the wine in the very end. This is a mouthfilling but fresh, lean and mineral Riesling of very promising quality. It shows fine and grippy tannins but no hints of bitter phenolics. 12.5% stated alcohol. Diam cork. Tasted in August 2023. I had this wine again in context with all of the 2022s from Daniel Wagner in January 2024, and this is my assessment 18 weeks later. The nose is intense and elegant, based on a serious mineral foundation, still a bit untamed and yeasty but also flinty and provided with an elegant, ripe Riesling aroma. On the palate, this is a vital, utterly mineral and tensioned, enormously saline and finely grippy Heerkretz with tight tannins, tactile impressions of crushed rocks and structurally some similarity with Pinot Noir. The 2022 is far too young to be drunk today, but it is a very promising Heerkretz.

AP number 17 23. Much less developed than the Höllberg. Still quite chewy and unformed. Something still quite astringent here. It’s not speaking to me at the moment but perhaps I’m currently wrongly immune to its charms. There is certainly intensity here. (JR)